T O D A Y Surreal Gourmet Olive you, Santa (12/05/97) Mondo Weirdo By Andrew Brown Ravenous bed bugs ruin one woman's quest for a good night's sleep (12/05/97) T A B L E_T A L K What trips have changed your life? Talk about it in Table Talk's Wanderlust area. R E C E N T L Y Maya Color Photographs by Jeffrey Becom Jeffrey Becom's passionate pix (12/04/97) The man who loved books in Turkey By Lisa Michaels An encounter with a book-starved shopkeeper in Turkey provides a new perspective on literary packing (12/03/97) Italian affair By Laura Fraser The author finds a passionate healing on a post-breakup trip to Italy (12/02/97) White dreams By Mary Roach Why I was wandering around Antarctica with a white plastic garbage pail over my head (12/01/97) Discovering Petra By Maxine Rose Schur At dusk, after the tourists have left, Jordan's ancient ruin comes to splendid life (11/26/97) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Your virtual travel agency - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the Wanderlust archives - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -		AN UNFORGETTABLE NIGHT IN IRIAN JAYA. This week's Mondo Weirdo recounts the tortured tale of a traveler who loses a night's sleep when she and her husband become dinner for ravenous bed bugs. What's the worst -- or best -- night you've ever spent abroad? And we have another question for you, too, in anticipation of a special year-end Mondo Weirdo: What's the most memorable New Year's Eve you've ever spent on the road? Send your tales to wanderlust@salonmagazine.com. Thanks. And happy travels! the worst experience of all was when I began to itch. There we were, in a remote village north of Wamena, Irian Jaya. We had chosen to spend the night in a teacher's house as opposed to setting up a camp in this sometimes hostile and volatile region populated by the indigenous Dani and Yali people. Since we weren't camping, we could pack less, leaving much of our camping gear and other miscellaneous items in storage at our hotel in Wamena. The smoke from the warming fire hung chokingly thick in the air. Each time the fire died, the porters got cold and one of them went out to chop wood. This, in turn, set off the entire population of dogs in the village. The insistent barking vibrated our primitive shack. As soon as things settled down again, inevitably, one of the 10 inhabitants of our tiny dwelling would have to go out to pee. This pattern of asphyxiation, wood chopping and dog barking, with intermittent sounds of urination, continued throughout the night. With the taste of bug repellent still lingering in my mouth and my mosquito net snugly tucked in, I could not imagine what could be feasting so happily on my body. It was munching on my husband, too, and with our flashlights we carefully checked each other out from head to toe. Nothing. We found no evidence of life -- only small bumps on our trunks and extremities. This we found extremely frustrating. Reluctantly, I pulled out the stronger repellent. As we itched and scratched and choked, we applied the heavy-duty stuff and tried again to get some sleep. The mysterious bugs were slowed but not stopped. It was a long, miserable night. The next morning, after some strong tea and boiled eggs, we smiled and got out our Polaroid camera. Our host family put on their nicest clothes and groomed each other. Villagers stopped and asked if they, too, could be in the photos. Shy faces looked into the flash, half hiding and half wanting to know just how it did that. They crowded around the finished photo giggling and pointing. Thinking that it might shame the family if we mentioned the bugs, we paid the teacher, thanked him and his family for letting us stay there, and went on our way. After a few miles, we found a nice private place on the Baliem River to mandi (bathe) and assess our bites. Under the morning sun, we looked over each other again, this time counting the bites and applying an anti-itch cream. After checking in at the next police station, we were informed of tribal wars farther ahead on our route and were advised to go back to Wamena. At our hotel we retrieved our belongings from storage and headed to the room for some much-needed sleep. I fumbled through my toiletries bag, which was among those I'd stored, and there it was, what I would have paid big money for the night before, an item I had so carefully shopped for in the States, yet carelessly left behind: my can of "bed bug spray." -- Lori Makabe